Posted on 10/08/2019 10:01:33 AM PDT by xzins
Some Republicans, including Trump allies such as Sen Lindsey Graham, have joined Democrats in sharply criticizing the president's decision to withdraw an unannounced number of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria.
But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) strongly supports the president's move, even if the "neocon war caucus of the Senate" -- Paul's words -- does not.
"We haven't been able to find peace for 18 years in Afghanistan," Paul told Fox News's Neil Cavuto in a telephone interview on Monday. "So I certainly don't think we're going to find peace in Syria. But I do think a couple of hundred people there is simply a trip wire for a bigger war or for a calamity for our soldiers."
The neocons "always want to stay at war. They always think it's the best answer," Paul said:
But I would say this. I think President Trump recognizes what President Reagan recognized, unfortunately too late, in Beirut. Leaving three or 400 people in an area that is vulnerable could lead to catastrophe, but also doesn't really do anything to secure our national security.
You know, I'm kind of the belief go big -- go big or go home. You know, 200 or 300 people are just a trip wire to get us drawn into something and a tragedy probably, but they aren't enough to do anything.
In fact, there may be a couple of -- there may be dozens of people at a time -- maybe a dozen here, dozen there. They aren't enough to deter anything. And part of the resolution of the war over there has to be people who live over there.
The Turks live over there. The Syrians live over there. And we have -- they have apparently come to an agreement. There's about three million Syrian refugees in Turkey. You know, they're going to try to get some of those people back into Syria. And they have to have an area -- a zone where they can control that.
And, you know, I think that the best answer is, is that we don't have all the answers and that the people who live there are always going to have more of a stake in the game, and we need to not think that it's always the U.S.' responsibility to fight every war and find every peace.
We haven't been able to find peace for 18 years in Afghanistan. So I certainly don't think we're going to find peace in Syria. But I do think a couple of hundred people there is simply a trip wire for a bigger war or for a calamity for our soldiers.
Paul said world powers "could have done a better job drawing up these country lines" after World War I:
Right now, there at least is a Kurdish autonomous region within Iraq. And I think that's a good place for people to live if they want to have more Kurdish autonomy. But then, it may be unrealistic to think that either Turkey or Syria is going to give up part of their territory up there to an autonomous region for the Kurds.
So, you know, some have said this will force the Kurds to decide who their allies are. But I guess that's kind of what they have got to decide. It's definitely not going to be Turkish allies.
So the question is, do they have more in common with Syria? And could there be some unification of causes there to try to find stability in Syria?
The bottom line is, this chaos was fed by outside intervention. The Turks got involved. We got involved, the Qataris, the Saudis. All these people got involved in this Syrian civil war. And to what end?
I mean, hundreds of thousands of people have died. Millions of people are displaced. So, once again, the idea of regime change in the Middle East -- and this is what President Trump is so right about -- regime change hasn't worked. It's led to more chaos.
And the rise of ISIS came in the chaos of Hussein being toppled, but also the chaos of Assad's regime being made marginal and made fragile.
The United States has an estimated 1,000 troops in Syria. According to The New York Times, Trump's pullback order affects around 100 to 150 of them.
Turkey wants to set up a buffer zone, free of Kurdish fighters, along its 300-mile border with Syria. It then plans to repatriate some two million Syrian refugees who fled to Turkey to escape the civil war
I read about the staging of the departure in some article this morning.
There are about 1000 troops there. The first extraction is about 150 people. Wish I could remember the link, but I cannot.
Wait, wait...
Nope. Still don’t care.
“But Rand is OK letting the Turks move into Syria and massacre Kurds?”
Not our problem.
L
If you're that upset it then contact your congress critter and demand that he/she/it declare war on Turkey. Or Syria. Or certain Kurds but not others. Do you even know?
Bet you won't.
It’s ironic, considering that a large number of Kurds assisted the Turks in slaughtering the Armenians.
The US has too many problems in our own country and, frankly, many Americans are beyond sick and tired of being the world’s policeman.
We have been helping the Kurds in Syria for 6 years. With our help, they have gained military and political control of a significant and contiguous portion of the country and have mostly made peace with Assad. Sure, they helped us fight ISIS - ON THEIR SOIL. They were the CLEAR benefactors of OUR support. How long do they expect us to stay? Decades? If Assad is willing to cede land to Turkey without a fight, are we now supposed to defend Syrian soil?
The Kurds should have realized when Trump began talking about quickly defeating ISIS and pulling our troops out of Syria, that their negotiating position was near it’s zenith. It was time to make deals and alliances. Having failed to act, they again look to us. Finally, we are saying ‘NO’.
The Opinion-For-Hire, Neocon Cavuto was all upset at Rand Paul during this interview.
Faux News has become the Paul Ryan News Channel.
and throw in being nation builders while you are at it.
I second this.
Like father Like Son.
BTW That is not a good thing in this case.
I have to agree with Rand. These are not our people...this is not our fight.
“Beware of foreign entanglements, “ our First President warned us!
Cavuto needs to retire...soon.
Rand has a point. Trump did the right thing.
Rand Paul, like his father, are neo-Isolationists who don’t know that there is a real, hostile and growing existential threat named Red China to the very existence of America.
Tucker Carlson is unfortunately joining this elite club of No-Nothings. Waiting or Mitt Romney to join the Surrender Monkeys of isolationism.
As Yogi Berra once said, “This is deja vu (1930’s) all over again”.
Should we keep 2 million combat troops ready to deploy anywhere in the world to “fight them there or fight them here?” Trump is beating China over the head with tariffs. They’ll come to their senses when they’re about to collapse.
Yep. Time to bring the troops home.
We are going to watch the slide of Syria into an orgy of genocidal violence. This violence will cross the border into Turkey because it will be between the Kurds who were our allies and who did the heavy lifting against Isis and Turkey our nominal NATO ally who did nothing for us over the last thirty years of fighting in the middle east. If there is going to be a war we should:
Reject Erdogen’s Turkey as an Islamic dictatorship similar to Iran and fully back the Kurds.
Result: Kurdistan becomes a sovereign state eating 1/3 of Turkey 1/3 of Syria and 1/3 of Iraq with a port on the Mediterranean and sharing a border with Iran. Iran with the same relationship the Kurds had with Turkey. Iran can handle a dysfunctional Iraq but how would they do with a unified much larger Kurdistan? That would be a win-win for the United States.
Key point to remember if you leave with the job half done you will have to go back and do it again. We only have one real true ally in the middle east (other than Israel)Kurdistan, make them into the dominant power in the middle east and we can leave behind a lasting peace.
So Rand is pro caliphate just like his father?
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